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Barcelona terror attack: Spain hunts for van driver

Barcelona terror attack: Spain hunts for van driver

Spain mounts a sweeping anti-terror operation after a suspected Islamist militant drove a van into crowds in Barcelona, killing 13 people before fleeing, in what police suspect was one of multiple planned attacks.

Video shows horrific aftermath in Barcelona

Shelling of UN facility 'totally unacceptable'

The White House condemns the Israeli Military's shelling of a UN facility housing civilians in Gaza as 'indefensible'.

The 72-hour break after more than three weeks of fighting was set to begin at 8am on Friday, local time, according to a joint statement released by United States Secretary of State John Kerry and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

A spokesman for Hamas, the Islamist group dominant in Gaza, said all Palestinian factions would abide by the truce as long as Israel held its fire.

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"We urge all parties to act with restraint until this humanitarian ceasefire begins, and to fully abide by their commitments during the ceasefire," Mr Kerry and Mr Ban said. "This ceasefire is critical to giving innocent civilians a much-needed reprieve from violence."

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Hours before the ceasefire was announced, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, facing international alarm over a rising civilian death toll in Gaza, said he would not accept any truce that stopped Israel from completing the destruction of militants' infiltration tunnels.

"It is a lull of opportunity, a moment for the different factions to be able to come together with the state of Israel in an effort to try to address ways to find a sustainable ceasefire and then obviously, over a longer period of time, address the underlying issues," he said.

Fighting continued, however, overnight. Hamas said it fired rockets at Israel, setting off air raid sirens in the area of Tel Aviv. Residents of Gaza reported further Israeli shelling. Israel's military said its Iron Dome defence system intercepted one of the rockets.

Previous international attempts to broker a humanitarian truce were less successful, securing shorter periods of calm, some of which collapsed immediately after being announced.

UN political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman said it took a massive diplomatic push to achieve the ceasefire.

"The Egyptians played an important role, the Qataris played an essential role in helping bring the parties on board, the Turks were in touch with all sides. This was a collective effort," Mr Feltman told CNN.

Israel launched its offensive in Gaza on July 8 in response to a surge of cross-border rocket attacks.

Gaza officials say at least 1427 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in the battered territory and nearly ,000 wounded. Fifty-six Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza clashes and more than 400 wounded. Three civilians have been killed by Palestinian shelling in Israel.

Mr Netanyahu faces intense pressure from abroad to stand his forces down. The United States and the UN Security Council have urged both sides to halt fighting in Gaza to allow in humanitarian relief.

"Acknowledging a call by the United Nations and in consideration of the situation of our people, resistance factions agreed to a 72-hour humanitarian and mutual calm as long as the other side [Israel] abides by it," said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri.

Israel has ordered its ground forces to focus on locating and destroying a warren of tunnels through which Hamas has menaced its southern towns and army bases.

With Israeli forces remaining on the ground to pursue that mission, it could open the way for Israel to declare it achieved the main goal of its ground offensive and to pull troops out of Gaza.